


Twenty Random Facts about Nymphadora Tonks

by runningscissors



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 20 Random Facts, Bisexual Nymphadora Tonks, Canon Compliant, Gen, HP Random Facts Fest, Multi, Tonks' Muggle Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24684103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runningscissors/pseuds/runningscissors
Summary: Originally written for Round 5 of the HP Random Facts Fest (2010?), but never posted. I wrote two fics for that challenge, one about Tonks and one about Teddy, but decided only to post my Teddy one. Ironically, I no longer have a copy of that fic, but this one was saved on a random USB I found, so here we are.
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	Twenty Random Facts about Nymphadora Tonks

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for Round 5 of the HP Random Facts Fest (2010?), but never posted. I wrote two fics for that challenge, one about Tonks and one about Teddy, but decided only to post my Teddy one. Ironically, I no longer have a copy of that fic, but this one was saved on a random USB I found, so here we are.

01\. Tonks’ first great love was her family dog, an Irish Setter named Marmalade, that they got when she was eight. Though an uncommon pet for a wizarding family, Tonks longed for a dog like her muggle cousins had. So, when Ted came home with a small puppy with soft, floppy ears, one all for her, it was love at first sight.

02\. When war broke out the first time, Tonks’ parents considered sending her away to stay with her Aunt Carol who lived in Canada. Andromeda lived in a perpetual state of fear, an unknown acolyte to Tonks’ future mentor’s mantra of _constant vigilance._ It was years later that Tonks realized how personally involved her family had been in the war, and the real horrors that lay on the other side of her family tree were revealed. 

03\. Tonks has always been close to her muggle family. Growing up, she spent two weeks every summer with her muggle grandparents— under strict rules of no morphing around her cousins, who were not in on the secret of magic. Ted, the oldest of four to a working-class family in Bristol, had made sure that his daughter grew up with a loving extended family around her. Something Andromeda had never had but had found in her husband’s family, who accepted her with open arms. 

04\. For years, Tonks’ favourite story was how her parents met. She loved to imagine it— how cool, pragmatic, sixteen-year-old Andromeda Black was swept off her feet by a burly Hufflepuff beater who saved her from a rogue bludger crashing into her in Slytherin viewing stands, then zipped off with a wink and a grin in her direction. When Tonks had joined the Hufflepuff team, she couldn’t help but wonder if that’s how she’d meet someone— the problem was boys just didn’t appreciate being saved by girls.

05\. As enticing as it was to change the things Tonks didn’t like about her appearance, she never morphed anything but her hair unless she needed to. It had been one of the first things her mother had instilled in her— that while her ability was a gift, it was also something that made her _different_ from everybody else, and with difference can come mistrust and even fear. 

06\. While she had partaken in a few covert snogs in the library, much like almost everyone else she knew, it wasn’t until Tonks left Hogwarts that she lost her virginity— to a Swedish boy with a nose ring she met while backpacking with her friend Jules the summer after completing their N.E.W.T.’s. She had her first experience with a girl four days later and decided that both were nice in different, but equally enjoyable ways. 

07\. Tonks had a massive muggle vinyl collection, a hobby she shared with her dad that only progressed the older she got. Her taste was varied and eclectic, from classical impressionism to punk/post-punk and new wave, to danzón and even her guilty pleasure of ABBA. She worshipped at the altar of Kate Bush and drooled over her posters of Sting and George Micheals. But she also had Pat Benatar, and Debbie Harry plastered to her bedroom walls, so maybe that should have been her first clue.

08\. The first time Tonks Apparated, she lost her balance, sprawling to the ground and spewed all over her shoes upon landing. She was an excellent flyer, though! 

09\. All of Tonks’ friends were shocked when she decided to become an Auror. For most of her time at Hogwarts, Tonks gave off the impression of coasting through life, one lark after the other. She was a friend to the world, the class clown in every respect, more interested in Quidditch and music than her studies. No one bothered to notice that she was also exceptionally bright and excelled academically (even in Potions, despite that greasy git, Snape's best efforts to terrorize her for clumsiness) without boasting. So, when Tonks proudly announced she had been accepted to the Auror program— the only person her age that year— it was met with blunt surprise. 

10\. Tonks almost didn’t pass her Auror qualification exams because she was a Metamorphmagus. What she had always thought of as something that made her special and well-liked, was seen as potentially dangerous to her examining board— a dark creature that the Ministry couldn’t trust. How could the public trust her if she could change herself into anyone she wanted? What was the accountability that she wouldn’t misuse her ability? It was only the sterling recommendation from Mad-Eye that swayed the panel, something she would always be indebted to him for. 

11\. Tonks got most of her hair ideas from colour design books, which she kept in her bathroom. As a child, she had just picked the colours she knew and liked, but there were so many amazing shades, an overwhelming about to choose from really, and it was so much easier to have something to match rather than racking her brain for new colours each day. 

12\. It wasn’t until Tonks’ first visit to Grimmauld Place, meeting Sirius and hearing his harrowing tales of growing up there, that she truly understood what kind of life her mother had escaped from. It seemed unthinkable that the mum she loved, and who fiercely loved her and her dad in return could have come from such unadulterated darkness. It just made her hug her all the tighter the next time she was home for Sunday lunch. 

13\. Her attraction to Remus surprised her. He was older, greying hair, stuffy jackets and shabby button-downs. But he was also quiet, genial, unassuming— so at odds with the dark creature that she’d been taught to fear— and unlike anyone she’d been interested in before. She noticed his smile, how it instantly melted the years from his wan face, then the deep, raspy timbre of his voice. He was the kind of handsome that had no idea they were and found herself enthralled with the mercurial nature of his eyes as they shifted from brown to green depending on the light. They quickly fell into friendship, and Tonks found herself smitten in a way she’d never experienced. Remus laughed at her jokes, made her feel heard and respected despite her age, and quickly became the eye she’d catch at meetings with a sly grin.  It wasn’t until she’d fleetingly caught the hooded look of his gaze, cheeks rosy at the knowledge he’d been spotted, that she realized he might feel the same. 

14\. Sirius’ death gutted her. They hadn’t known each other long, but she had loved him all the same. He was her family, maybe the closest family she’d ever had, the kind she could totally be herself with. He was her connection to the parts of her mother she never got to learn about, a door unlocking parts of her past she'd never known. His death was her fault, no matter what anyone said. Bellatrix had been hers to get, and she had let her slip through her fingers. She burned with rage for weeks later— at her failure, at the injustice that was Sirius’ wasted life, it fuelled her even as her heart was breaking. 

15\. Her Patronus forms were each shaped by the most important men in her life. Her dad used to call her his little bunny, bouncing about, nose twitching in anticipation. The first time she cast a corporeal Patronus, and a happy jackrabbit burst forth, it just felt right. So, when a huge, shaggy wolf exploded before her where her jackrabbit should be— chasing off Dementors with powerful, snapping jaws— it rocked her. She’d never doubted that she loved Remus, but to see that manifested in something that was so intrinsically _her_ was staggering. 

16\. She stopped in for a drink with Hagrid several times through-out the year she was assigned to patrol the school grounds. She had always been fond of Hagrid when she’d been at Hogwarts, and continued to be so in their new role as Order colleagues. 

17\. Despite appearances, Tonks was an efficient person who simply thrived in organized chaos. Cadet training had taught her that if she wanted to be taken seriously at her job, she had to be twice as on the ball as all her male colleagues. She made lists, kept her diary in order, and her paperwork was always meticulous. 

18\. Tonks only wrote in indigo blue ink— even at work, which drove some of her colleagues batty. It was a signature feature of her personality as much as her pink hair was. 

19\. When Remus returned, repentant, and on bended knees, she almost turned him away. She had more than herself to think of now, and she refused to subject her child to the heartbreak of a father who’s fight or flight reflex was so overwhelmingly the latter. She was tired of fighting someone who couldn’t decide if she was worth it, it was insulting and demoralizing. But then she remembered that the only thing that kept her tethered when she’d found out she was pregnant was her firm conviction that fatherhood would be the making of Remus. So, she let him back into her bed and into the life he temporarily threw away. 

20.Tonks had never considered herself someone who wanted children. It had never once been a dream of hers, and her pregnancy couldn’t have come at a worse time— her flighty husband abandoning her, her beloved father murdered, chaos and destruction raging around her. But when they placed her son in the cradle of her arms, she felt complete in a way she had never before. She looked to Remus, the enraptured joy on his face making him look younger than she’d ever seen him, and she knew. This was it.


End file.
